GAS-LIGHTS.
the application of Gas-Lights to economi • cal purposes is of recent date, a considerable time has elapsed since the public were, in some degree, made acquainted with the properties of the gas hi therto principally made use of for such purposes, and which is commonly known by the name of coal gas. The inflammable properties of gas, escaping from the surface of a spring in the neighbourhood of Wigan, in Lancashire, are described in the Philo sophical Transactions for the year 1667 ; and in the volume for 1783, there is an account of the carbureted hydrogen, issuing from a coal-work in Cumberland, having been collected in a bladder, and burnt tbrough a tube attached. In 1739, the Reverend John Clayton distilled coal in a close re tort, and obtained therefrom a black oil, and a per manent gas (or spirit, as he calls it), and which lat ter he confined in bladders, and burned it through small orifices. There are other notices of burning wells and burning rocks, and of inflammable air hav ing been found to arise from the distillation of coal, and of gases differently produced having been used for fire-works ; but it does not appear that the idea of applying the light produced to useful purposes oc curred to any person till the year 1792, when Mr William Murdock, of Soho, employed coal gas for the purpose of lighting his house and offices, then at Redruth, in Cornwall. The gas was generated in an iron retort, and conveyed in tubes to different situa tions, from whence it issued through proper aper tures, and was there inflamed. Portions of the gas were also confined in portable vessels of tinned iron and other substances, from which it was expelled when required, furnishing a moveable gas-light.
From this time forward, till about the year 1802, little more appears to have been done towards intro ducing this discovery to public notice. In the inter val, however, Mr Murdock had made a number of experiments on the subject, and lighted up part of the manufactory at Soho; at which place a public display of the gas-lights was made in the spring of 1802, upon occasion of the general illumination for the peace then concluded at Amiens.
• It has been asserted, that gas-lights were used in Paris previous to the British public being acquainted with them. The earliest date, however, assigned for their appearance is the winter of 1802: the gas used • appears to have been obtained from wood.
In the years 1808 and 1804, gas-lights were ex hibited in London; but a considerable time elapsed, and large sums of money were expended, before the metropolis was any way benefited by the introduc tion of Mr Murdock's discovery.
The first application, upon any considerable scale, of lighting by means of coal gas, was to the exten sive cotton-mills of Messrs Philips and Lee of Man chester; the apparatus employed was erected in 1894 and 1805 under the directions of Mr Mur dock, and it was found capable of supplying light equal nearly to what 8000 candles would yield. This system of lighting was shortly after adopted by many proprietors of cotton, woollen, and other manufac tories in different parts of the kingdom, and has since been gradually introduced into most of the principal towns; and in America and on the Continent it ap pears to have been partially adopted.
About the year 1804, Mr Winsor, who had first exhibited the gas-lights in London, took out a patent for preparing and purifying coal gas ; and, since that time, numerous others have been granted for effect ing similar purposes ; but, in general, their claims to novelty and utility are very limited.
Gases obtained from other combustible substances have been used for the purposes of affording light. Tallow, pitch, turpentine, turf or peat, some of the resinous woods and barks, all yield gases more or less fitted for the purposes of illumination ; but with regard to the comparative economy of each, it does not appear that accurate results have been obtained from experience. Oil-gas has been extensively used, and will be treated of.